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Jürgen Giessing
High Intensity Training
High Intensity Training
How to build muscles in minutes – fast, efficient, and healthy
by
Jürgen Giessing
Imprint:
© 2016 Copyright by Jürgen Gießing
Druck: epubli, a service of neopubli GmbH, Berlin
What this book is about
How many sets should be performed for optimal progress? How many repetitions per set for maximal muscle growth? How many training days per week are best? Which exercises are recommended? Split training or even double split training? How many warm-up sets? Heavy or light weight? Strict exercise form or cheating?
There are so many questions concerning training that it is not surprising that many people are confused. Looking at each of these questions may actually contribute to neglecting another question that is not only more important but also the base for all answers to these individual questions. And this question is:
How does training work?
Training processes have been studied for many years using the most recent scientific methods available. The relevance of training parameters (for muscle stimulation) as well as the importance of rest (for regeneration) have been identified in detail and provide us with all the information necessary to make the body adapt in the desired way to build up lean muscle.
This book is about how training works and what this means if the goal is to gain lean muscle. As a sports science professor I often come across misconceptions of training that have been disproved long ago but are still being passed on. One of these misleading concepts is the “the more, the better” approach that is still followed by millions of trainees world-wide. However, sports science has proven many times that the quality of training is much more important than its quantity. This book deals with the reasons for this “lie that will not die” and how current findings of sports science can be used to one’s advantage. Making the quality of training a priority has the pleasant “side-effect” that the quantity of workouts can be reduced. In fact, it even has to, if quality is the top priority.
If you want to know more about the theoretical background and practical implications for training, read on.
Table of Contents
1 Survival of the fittest? How much and what kind of exercise our body needs
4 The discovery of High Intensity Training
5 The (missing) scientific background of multiple-set training
6 The Holy Trinity: All good things come in threes
7 The paradigm shift that never happened
8 The essence of High Intensity Training
9.1 Sample full-body workout A
9.2 Sample full-body workout B
9.3 Sample full-body workout C
9.4 Sample full body workout with pre-exhaustion A
9.5 Sample full body workout with pre-exhaustion B
9.6 Sample full body workout with post-exhaustion A
9.7 Sample full body workout with post-exhaustion B
9.8 Split program: Sample upper/lower body split
9.9 Split program: Sample upper/lower body split with pre-exhaustion
9.10 Split program: Sample upper/lower body split with post-exhaustion
9.11 Split program: Push-pull split A (two-way split)
9.12 Split program: Push-pull split B (three-way split)
List of Figures
Figure 1:... Lack of physical exercise causes negative adaptation and regression. 12
Figure 2:... Milo of Croton. 21
Figure 3:... Improved muscle fiber activation precedes muscular hypertrophy. 26
Figure 4:... The General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). 32
Figure 5:... Friedrich Nietzsche. 33
Figure 6:... The process of supercompensation. 34
Figure 7:... The training threshold. 37
Figure 8:... Arthur Jones. 44
Figure 9:... Cross referencing by physiologists who recommend the execution of multiple sets (Carpinelli, 2002, p. 320). 55
Figure 10:. Strength gains after ten weeks of HIT compared to ten weeks of three-set training. 60
Figure 11:. Mike Mentzer. 83
Figure 12:. Drop set: reducing the resistance immediately after reaching muscular failure. 99